I’ve participated in a few “Ask The Experts” panels in the past few months and couldn’t help but notice that Social Media is quite the hot topic right now. People are very keen in learning how to use Twitter, Facebook, Linkedin, etc… Most attendees are curious about how it works, why anyone would invest the time and energy, what’s the ROI and if it’s the right avenue for their business. These are all good questions and there are simply no easy answer. It really depends on who your audience is and where they are.
A funny thing happened to me last Friday which demonstrates how complicated and unpredictable it is to explain the power of Social Media.
I have a Twitter account and follow mostly designers and WordPress developers. This allows me to find out about latest tips, tutorials and website development news. Cameron Moll posted a tweet to a “mesmerizing” YouTube video which caught my attention. I clicked the link and watched a video taken at Kuroshio Sea which is the 2nd largest aquarium in the world.
The video is indeed breathtaking, but I was curious about the music. I watched and listened to the video a couple of times and wanted to find out who was singing. Using my iPhone, I Shazammed it and got the name of the song, band and album. A quick search on YouTube led me to a video of Barcelona singing live in San Diego. I watched a few more videos and decided to visit Barcelona’s page on MySpace. Listened to a few more clips and then I was off to iTunes and bought the album.
I’m not sure that a marketer could have predicted this, but I’m convinced that Social Media is worth investing in.
At a new media session at CES that I attended last week the panelists cautioned companies to ignore new media (especially blogs and social networks) at their peril. If companies insist on being ostriches with their corporate heads in the sand, they risk losing control of their brand.
Last weeks furore over Tim Horton’s employees and their Facebook antics is a case in point. With over 3,400 members, the “Rules of Ordering and More” group lists 80 or so tips that customers should take to heart if they want good service. Apparently the group is administered by Timmy’s employees unbeknownst to their employer. Its actually quite funny – you should take a read.
Had Tim Hortons (the famous Canadian Donut franchise owned by Pepsico) been monitoring the Internet effectively, the company would have been aware of groups like this much sooner and could have put contingencies in place to protect its brand or HR policies to outline appropriate employee conduct on the Internet. Had it been more proactive it could have channeled the publicity it received last week to its benefit rather than detriment.
Companies cannot ignore web 2.0 technologies any longer. They must, at the very least, be listening to what is being said about them even if they are not ready to be contributing to the conversation: in that way they have a chance at least of maintaining some control over their brand.
Now if that isn’t a catchy title, I don’t know what is. Darren Barefoot and Julie Szabo have just released their eBook Getting to First Base: A Social Media Marketing Playbook. I’ve only read a bit of one sample chapter and already learned a great idea: to make a social media resource page on corporate websites. That would be similar to a press kit, but for the age of citizen journalism. They also include a quote from Dirty Dancing. How apropos.
I’ve been stumbling quite a lot lately and its nothing to do with cool beer on a summer day. I’ve been stumbling upon new websites, blogs, and videos with StumbleUpon, a great Web 2.0 tool that downloads to your browser and allows you to sample web pages according to your specified interests.
I’ve tried using other social bookmarking sites like Digg and Del.icio.us and nothing has hooked me so far. StumbleUpon is easy to set up: register and download the browser add in at StumbleUpon, click on the Stumble button on your browser toolbar and off you go. You can flag and tag those you like, give the thumbs down to those you don’t (further honing in on exactly what interests you) and you can share finds with friends.
E-bay bought StumbleUpon earlier this year and it remains to be seen how this will change the offering. Recent updates to the interface have annoyed longstanding Stumblers and they have been criticised for their insensitivity to freedom of speech.
Social bookmarking sites like this are evolving and becoming more dynamic with alternatives like Trailfire also gaining popularity. Its becoming easier everyday to find and track new sites you like and you might just stumble upon something amazing.
Recently a friend of mine sent me an invitation to join her network on Facebook. I ignored it at first, thinking back to my first experience with the social networking site; I had seen how my college-aged step-daughter uses it. She and her friends post tons of photos and notes for each other, mainly centering around recent parties etc. Theirs is a socially active world with time to spare, compared to mine. So Facebook didn’t seem like it was a place for me.
But recently the site has broken past it’s college bounds and people from all walks of life are signing up. I was convinced to try it out after reading reviews by Alexandra Samuel and Rob Cottingham.
A tag on a blog or article is just like a tag on your shirt: it’s a label that provides brief information about the item in question. A tag on a shirt usually gives the name of the maker or sometimes (in the case of my kid’s) the owner’s details. In other words tags give brief information pertaining to that particular shirt. With a blog or other web posting its the same: a tag is a word or very short phrase that describes concisely what the subject of the piece is all about. Think of them as keywords used to identify the content within.
Extending the shirt analogy, if I lose my shirt and there’s a tag on it with my name on then I’m more likely to find it again. Same goes for tags on the Internet: they are used to make it easier for people to find items such as articles, blog posts, photos, video clips and so on – stuff that interests them.
Blog search engines and bookmarking pages such as Technorati and Del.icio.us use tags extensively to make it easier for users to navigate the blogosphere – users can even give articles their own personal tags so that they can organise information in a manner suited to their needs.
Marshall Kirkpatrick has some more great reasons why you should use tags in his 13 Reasons to Use Tags article.
Tagging a blog article is really easy. Most blog software allows you to create categories that are relevant to each post. These categories are the tags that blog search engines will use to categorise your piece. To use them, simply categorise each blog post before publishing by checking the appropriate word or phrase or adding a new one and checking that.
Here are a few points to remember when you’re coming up with tags:
1. Tags must be concise (1 -2 words max);
2. Tags must be relevant;
3. There is no limit to the number of tags you use;
4. Remember to check your spelling.
I’ve been stumbling quite a lot lately and its nothing to do with cool beer on a summer day. I’ve been stumbling upon new websites, blogs, and videos with StumbleUpon, a great Web 2.0 tool that downloads to your browser and allows you to sample web pages according to your specified interests.